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Three days before John Wilkes Booth fatally shot the President, Lincoln relayed a dream he had to his wife in which he was wandering through the rooms of White House hearing sobs and crying as he went. When he reached the East Room, he noticed a casket. He asked a soldier who was in the casket and the soldier replied that it was the President – killed by an assassin. Lincoln woke up from that dream but failed to sleep for the rest of the night.

Little did the President know that as he dreamed of his own assassination, the actual plot was being formulated by John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate sympathizer. Booth’s original plan was simply to kidnap the President, but as his anger grew over Lincoln’s support for former slaves, he resolved to kill the president, Secretary of State William Seward, Union General Ulysses S. Grant, and Vice-president Andrew Johnson. To help in his nefarious plot, Booth recruited George Atzerdot to kill Johnson and David Herold and Lewis Powell to kill Seward. Herold would lead Powell to Seward’s house because Powell was unfamiliar with the layout of the city. Booth directed Mary Surratt, another Confederate sympathizer, to deliver a package of “field glasses” to her tavern where Booth could pick them up after the assassination. In addition, she was to instruct the innkeeper to give Booth whiskey and several guns she had stored for him for his escape into the South.

On the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln was to attend the performance of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater. It was a perfect opportunity for Booth, who knew every line of the play, and knew every corner and corridor of the theater. Lincoln’s presidential box was supposed to be manned by a police officer named John Frederick Parker. Parker, however, left his post to visit a tavern, and may or may not have returned. He might have fallen asleep on the job. Booth, with easy access to the President’s box, waited for the right moment during the play, rushed into the box, and shot the President in the back of the head. As the President fell over, Mary Todd Lincoln caught him then began screaming. Soon, chaos broke out as the audience attempted to flee the theater. Booth vaulted from the box to the stage below but caught his boot spur in a treasury flag and broke his leg. Before he escaped from the theater, a visibly limping Booth was said to have yelled “Sic Semper Tyrannis,” which means “Thus Always to Tyrants” in Latin. It is also the motto of the state of Virginia.

Meanwhile, Booth’s co-conspirator, Lewis Powell, had gained entry into the Seward house and stabbed the Secretary of State in the face with a dagger after beating his son Frederick over the forehead with a gun. Seward, who had been bedridden since a carriage accident, was lucky to survive. George Atzerdot, who had been assigned by Booth to murder vice president Johnson, decided against the plans and drank the night away in a tavern.

Charles Leale, a doctor who was at Ford’s Theater at the time of the assassination, was the first to respond to the shooting. He examined the president and found the bullet hole in his head and removed the blood clot. Lincoln’s breathing reportedly improved temporarily, but Leale knew the wound was mortal. Leale and two other doctors had Lincoln moved to the boarding house of William Peterson, across the street from the theater. Soon, Lincoln’s son Robert, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles were summoned to the house. Stanton quickly took control of the scene and ordered the removal of Lincoln’s hysterical wife, Mary. From the Peterson House, Stanton ordered the search for Booth to commence. As the night wore on, however, the President’s breathing became shallower. At 7:22 A.M. on April 15, 1865, he was pronounced dead, at which point Stanton uttered his immortal words “Now, he belongs to the ages.”

Following the fall that broke his leg, Booth made his way out of theater by slashing his knife at anyone who got in his way. Booth had meticulously planned his escape and had rode to the outskirts of Washington D.C. shortly after the assassination. When he reached the Navy Yard Bridge, which led out of the city, Booth managed to convince the guard Silas T. Cobb, who was under orders not to let anyone pass, to let him cross the bridge. Booth eventually met up with John Herold and the pair retrieved their weapons from Mary Surratt’s house before visiting the house of Dr. Samuel Mudd, who would set Booth’s broken leg. Booth and Herold, aided by other Confederate sympathizers hid out in a swamp for five days until it was determined they could safely cross the Potomac River into Virginia. The two managed to persist for twelve days until they were tracked down by Union soldiers at a farm in Virginia. Booth barricaded himself inside a barn and refused to surrender. Union soldier Boston Corbett shot Booth in the neck, paralyzing him. After being shot, soldiers dragged him to the barn steps where he died two hours later.

Lewis Powell, George Atzerdot, David Herold, and Mary Surratt were all eventually detained and sentenced to hang. Mary Surratt became the first woman in U.S. history to be hanged, though several of the jurors signed a petition requesting her pardon after it was too late. Dr. Samuel Mudd, who set the broken leg of the assassin, was sentenced to life in prison.

Mark the statements T (True) or F (False)

1. John Wilkes Booth was once wandering through the rooms of White House hearing sobs and crying as he went.       [true, false]

2. John Wilkes Booth abandoned his original plan to kidnap President Lincoln.       [true, false]

3. Both Mary Surratt and John Wilkes Booth were Confederate sympathizers.       [true, false]

4. John Wilkes Booth intended to hide in a tavern.       [true, false]

5. Lincoln was fully protected in his presidential box.       [true, false]

6. Booth was seen to be hurt while escaping from the theater.       [true, false]

7. All conspirators carried out their assignments.       [true, false] 

8. Secretary of State William Seward tried to run away from the attackers.       [true, false]

9. John Wilkes Booth was fatally wounded in the neck.       [true, false]

10. Mary Surratt was pardoned when several of the jurors signed a petition with the respective request.       [true, false]

Choose the correct item

1. What did President Lincoln's dream foretell?

                                 [An unknown person's death, The East Room of the White House, His own death, The death of his son]

2. Which of the following was NOT true about John Wilkes Booth?

                                      [He was an actor., He sympathized with the South., He did not really want to kill Lincol, He believed in slavery.]

3. What does the word 'nefarious' mean in the following sentence: 'To help in his nefarious plot, Booth recruited George Atzerdot to kill Johnson and David Herold and Louis Powell to kill Seward'?

           [old, successful, unlikely, evil]

4. Why was David Herold needed in Booth's Plan?

                               [To help George Atzerdot, To kill Vice-president Johnson, To help Louis Powell, To kill General Grant]

5. Which of the following words best describes John Wilkes Booth as he entered Lincoln's private box at Ford's Theater?

              [Careless, Sad, Terrified, Opportunistic]

6. How did John Wilkes Booth break his leg?

                                         [In the fight with Lincoln., The passage doesn't say., He caught the spur of his boot., He was shot in the leg during his escape]

7. Which of the following DID NOT occur at the Petersen Boarding House?

                                      [Dr. Leale removed the blood clot., Lincoln died., Lincoln's son Robert arrived., Mary Todd was removed from the scene.]

8. Who uttered the famous quote, "Now he belongs to the Ages"

                  [Robert Lincoln, Dr. Leale, John Wilkes Booth, Edwin M. Stanton]

9. Why did John Wilkes Booth and David Herold visit the house of Dr. Mudd?

                            [To treat Booth's broken leg, To cross the Potomac River, To plan their escape, To secure their weapons]

10. Why did Mary Surratt become significant in history?

                                         [Some believed she actually shot Lincoln., She helped tend to Lincoln' wounds., She was the first woman to be executed., She was the first woman to vote.]

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Today I’d like to talk about some of the reasons why we shouldn’t automatically believe everything we read online, and how false information spreads so easily with the help of technology. One of the reasons for this is a phenomenon known as circular reporting. It’s basically reports which are based on other reports, rather than on the primary evidence or source. To the reader, it looks like the information is coming from several different independent sources, which normally means it can be trusted. But, in actual fact, all the reports are based on each other. Imagine a piece of false information is published, forexample on Wikipedia, and then is referenced in a newspaper article or other publication. Then, in turn, the original Wikipedia entry references or quotes the article as validation thatthe information is true. In a nutshell, it’s the confirmation of false information by more than one publication.

So, someone writes an article on Wikipedia which contains some false information which is not referenced or checked and in no way is obvious as being false. And then this false information is copied from Wikipedia by a journalist and included in a newspaper article,or other type of article, as if it were true information.And then Wikipedia references the newspaper article, which verifies the information in the original Wikipedia article as being true. And sometimes it’s not just one newspaper article that cites the false information. Several publications may include it and so it becomes very difficult to prove that the original information is false. Let me give you an example. A few years ago a 17-year-oldAmerican student was on holiday with his family in Brazil. He spotted what he believed to be an aardvark [‘a:dva:k], but which was in fact a type of Brazilian raccoon called a coati [kou’a:ti]. When the boy got home after his holiday, he went online and changed the Wikipedia entry by adding thename ‘Brazilian aardvark’ to the information on the article, as a sort of joke, and then he forgot about it and thought nothing more of it. However, what started to happen was thatarticles and blogs began to quote the information from Wikipedia and then those articles were re-reported as evidence in Wikipedia. Before long, everyone was talking about the ‘Brazilian aardvark’ as if it were factual information.

It makes you wonder how many hoaxes initiated by people in this way have ended up as truths in many people’s minds just because people copy and paste vandalised Wikipedia pages. That’s not to say that all information on Wikipedia is false by any means. There’s a ton of really valid information there and it is constantly being updated – manypeople consider it to be the most up-to-date and unbiased encyclopaedia in the world. However, it is the open structure of Wikipedia, compared to a traditional encyclopaedia,which makes it a target to be tampered with. We just have to be aware that there may be a certain amount of inaccuracies on Wikipedia, and it’s also worth mentioning that circular reporting is not just restricted to harmless information like the ‘Brazilian aardvark’.For example, some time ago, claims that certain vaccines could cause autism in children were published in a prestigious medical publication by a British surgeon. The problem was that the unsupported claims were picked up by the media and the news spread like wildfire. Soon enough the general public were understandably concerned about the risks and huge numbers of parents refused to vaccinate their children. Consequently, in recent years we have seen an increase in the number of children suffering childhood diseases such asmeasles. By the time the claims were proven unfounded, the damage was done and even to this day some people still believe that there is a link between vaccines and autism.

We can make sure that what we’re reading is true by taking certain steps such as checking the original source of the information and, if at all possible, checking that the original source is reliable and not just taken from either Wikipedia, Facebook or the media. So we need to be a little more critical and not just believe everything we read online, although it’s difficult because we want information quickly and immediately, so it’s not always viable to spend time checking the sources of information, even though we should. And we should certainly try and reflect on the information and decide ourselves if wethink it’s true or not. If you feel unsure about the validity of certain information, then there’s no harm in looking into it further to check how true it actually is. We often take things at face value and don’t really take the time to think critically about them.

Mark the statements T (True) or F (False)

1. Everything we read online can be trusted.____       [true, false]___

2. Wikipedia can reference newspaper articles which include false information copied form Wikipedia.____       [true, false]___

3. A 17-year-old American student was doing research in Brazil when he spotted what he believed to be an aardvark.__       [true, false]___

4. People do not copy and paste vandalised Wikipedia pages.___       [true, false]__

5. All information on Wikipedia is false.___       [true, false]___

6. Wikipedia is considered by many to be fair and impartial.___       [true, false]___

7. Information on ‘Brazilian aardvark’ had catastrophic consequences.___       [true, false]____

8. An increase in the number of children suffering from measles is related to unsupported claims published in a prestigious medical publication by a British surgeon._       [true, false]___

9. The link between vaccines and autism is no longer recognized by anyone.__       [true, false]___

10. Critical thinking can help us avoid using false information found online. ___       [true, false]___

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Do you agree that scientists should be free to carry out experiments they like, regardless of utility, cost and ethics? What do you think are the main dangers of scientific advances?